I have a confession to make, I suffer from G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). I don’t want to spend a lot of money on new lenses so I look towards older, vintage, manual lenses, which are cheap and fun to use but don’t offer the same image quality as modern lenses. Gotta catch’em all!

So I thought to myself today, why not buy a new lens, it’s cheap, so why not?

Dream The DREAM

But first let me tell you about the dream I had last night. I was filthy rich, I mean like massively rich and I had huge underground garage, as far as the eye can see packed full of cars (you thought I was going to say camera gear didn’t you). I had old cars, new cars, concept cars, future cars, so many I didn’t even know the number, so many I had forgotten that I own most of the models.

I walked through my garage not even remembering buying them or why I did it in the first place but they were there on display. I thought to myself why did I do this, I don’t even have time to drive any more, let alone drive so many models.

A strange and somewhat wicked voice in my head soon answered my question: you have money so why not? I guess it made sense ’cause I soon stopped questioning my reasons and just enjoyed the view of my beautiful shiny cars arranged perfectly on the left and right sides of what seemed to be my never ending garage.

Zenit 122 Helios 44M-5 58mm F2

After about an hour walk I reached the end of the garage but instead of feeling happy, refreshed and full of energy, I remember feeling tired, anxious and lonely. My pessimistic feelings soon came to end when the strange voice reappeared and gently whispered: “Maybe you should buy a new car, it will be fun to have a new model to drive around and new cars have extra features that are always fun. Plus, you have the money, so why not?”

We sometimes use material possessions to feel a certain void in our life but the void never seems to be filled and at the end of the day we still end up tired, stressed and not as happy as we thought we would be.

For me the void is the fact that I don’t have time to take as many pictures as I’d like to or that I’m not feeling inspired and hope that a new piece of gear would inspire me or take better photos but it doesn’t work that way.

TL;DR

So next time you have a huge GAS attack, think about creating the possibility of have more meaningful experiences rather than buying new gear.Think of yourself as the richest person on planet Earth. Will a new lens make you happy or fill the void in your life?

You can have hundreds of lenses and cameras, but if you never use them, never get outside and take photos, it’s all for nothing.

How do you get rid of G.A.S (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)?

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